Well, what of us? How can Jesus pray at the Last Supper that he is glorified in us? And that we have kept his word? How is that even possible for him to say of us, we who hourly find excuses to obey our own wills rather than his?

Well, answer me this then. How could he say to the common laborer Gideon, "The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor." And again, almost in the same breath, "Go in this strength of yours [really?, Gideon must have thought] and save Israel." The man himself replied, "Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house." So there.

So the question begs to be asked: What does God see in us that we are missing? Himself! To Gideon: "I will be with you." There is our glory. To us: "If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also, If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him."(John 12:26) And: "I will be with you always, even to the end of the age." (Matthew 28:20)

Try it on our own, this glory thing, and we fail. Pride and self-aggrandizement take over. Boasting and excusing ourselves become our mantra. But abide in Jesus? Read this: "I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing." So no abiding, no glory. Abide, glory. Simple? Yes. Do-able? Not without the vine.

More glory

Glory. We see it in creation . . . the craggy mountains of Nepal and the rolling hills of Tennessee, the hummingbird and the macaw, the Milky Way and the blade of grass. It's hard to escape, unless our eyes are distracted by lesser things.

But do we see glory in the broken body of God's Son? For this is where glory truly resides. In Jesus' prayer at the Last Supper, he asked God to glorify Him: Glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you. (John 17) What does he mean by that? How can his coming last hours possibly glorify him? They were the most wretched hours in his life and in the history of the world . . . God Himself crushed to death on the cross. Glory? Hardly the word most of us would use.

Listen to what Jesus says in John 12 about that very hour: The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. So glory comes in death. Why? Because of the fruit that is born.

And we, sisters, are that fruit. It was His death that was "his greatest glory, his greatest triumph, the most wonderful display of his eternal nature as the God of love. . . The cross reveals Christ's essential nature as One who loves so deeply that he will sacrifice himself completely for those he loves." (Jerram Barrs)

Because at that death, God's wrath against us and all of our sin was poured out on Jesus Christ, who bore it willingly, even gladly, and we are free. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ. (2 Corinthians 5:21) Glory indeed!

He became our sin, took it on, clothed himself in it. What, then, of us? More glory tomorrow.

Look! The whole earth is full of His glory! And it is all around us. And He is all around us. The whole earth reflects and proclaims His beauty and wisdom and love for us. Which of us would think of making a jack-in-the-pulpit? Or a dragonfly? Or an eye? He is amazing God. The heavens themselves declare it.

Hear what Psalm 24 claims: Lift up your head, O gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord, mighty in battle! . . . Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, He is the King of glory!

Who, then is this King of glory, the glory that we hear proclaimed from the heavens, the glory that we see in all the wide world of creation? The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14) He, Jesus Christ, is the King of glory. Hebrews 1 says of Him: He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. This is our amazing God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! (Psalm 95:6)

But there is more to this glory than mere created worlds. Much more. I'll explore that tomorrow.

Aah . . . summer is finally here in all its glory and beauty and heat. And aren't you glad we live in Wisconsin??!!

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. (Psalm 19:1,2) As we look at all the glory around us in the form of green, flowers, buds, green, blue sky, and more green!, do we see them crying out the glory of God? Do we join the proclaiming heavens in giving thanks? Didn't Jesus say that the rocks themselves would cry out if we do not? If we forget, neglect, refuse to acknowledge "Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!", God will still be glorified. His very created works will do that job for us.

Pray with your eyes open. See the created wonders that God has wrought. See His beauty in those wonders, and give thanks. They declare His glory, and so ought we.